Nov 6, 2025
Webinar 

Watch the Webinar: The Rise of Authoritarianism

LDAD Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen recently participated as a panelist on a webinar, The Rise of Authoritarianism: What's Happening to Our Rights?, hosted by the Greater Newburyport Bar Association occured on November 6th, 2025. This forum featured legal experts on the state of our democracy and the rise of authoritarianism.

Key questions guiding the discussion included: Is our democracy at risk, and if so what can we do? What does the Rule of Law mean and why should we care? Who is entitled to Due Process of Law and how does one get it? What does the First Amendment to our constitution say and mean?

Nov 4, 2025
Webinar 

Watch the Webinar: Free Speech Under Siege

This webinar, Free Speech Under Siege: Echoes of McCarthyism, took place on Tuesday, November 4, from 4:00 - 5:00 pm ET, and featured the following distinguished speakers:

• Moderator: Gary J. Simson, Macon Chair in Law, Mercer University; LDAD Board Member
• Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of Berkeley Law
• Kermit Roosevelt, David Berger Professor for the Administration of Justice, Penn Carey Law School
• Nadine Strossen, Professor of Law Emerita, New York Law School; Former President, ACLU

This webinar is part of LDAD's Meeting the Moment Webinar series, which offers volunteers tools to engage communities on issues critical to strengthening and preserving our democracy, the rule of law, and the justice system.

Oct 26, 2025
Times Union

Commentary: Attacks on judges have a frightening purpose

We are witnessing attempts to undermine and attack judges — and through them, the rule of law — on a scale unprecedented in the more than half-century that I have been a lawyer. Officials at the highest levels of government impugn character and integrity and provoke doxing and physical harm against virtually any judge who rules against the federal administration, ignoring the substance of their typically careful, well-reasoned opinions.
 

Oct 23, 2025
Canadian Lawyer

Speak Up for Justice national forum discusses threats to judges in the US, shadow dockets

Speak Up for Justice held a national forum earlier today October 23 entitled “Judges Under Siege – Lawyers Speak Up.” The forum tackled personal attacks on the US judiciary and the US Supreme Court’s emergency docket. LDAD executive director Lauren Stiller Rikleen detailed a new initiative by the organization called “Meeting the Moment, A Call for Lawyers to Lead.”

“This initiative is based on an essential premise: there's an urgent need for every American to understand that the issues we are addressing—rule of law, democracy, the justice system—affect every one of us, and we believe that lawyers are the trusted voices in their communities with special training and communication skills who can and must be leaders to help both their colleagues and the public understand why they cannot stay silent now,” Rikleen said. “I can't believe that every single person in this country doesn't believe in due process… and the notion that any of this is partisan is kind of beyond me at this point. We are living through unprecedented times. We are seeing things happening in the destruction of our government and our democracy that has never been seen at this scale, certainly in our lifetimes in this country.”

Oct 21, 2025
PR Newswire

Top U.S. Trial Lawyers Sound the Alarm on Attacks on Democracy at National Speak Up for Justice Forum

With 562 threats against federal judges already recorded in 2025 — surpassing the total for all of 2024 — America's most prominent trial attorneys are sounding the alarm.

This Thursday, October 23, the nonpartisan movement Speak Up for Justice hosts "Judges Under Siege, Lawyers Speak Up," a virtual forum featuring a powerhouse lineup of lawyers, including David Boies (Bush v. Gore), Mark Geragos, Mark Lanier, Stephen Zach, and Patricia L. Glaser. Together, they'll confront an unprecedented threat to judicial independence and the rule of law.

Oct 21, 2025
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: The Health of Our Democracy and the Rule of Law in 2025 (Part Two)

LDAD Co-Founder and Board Chair Scott Harshbarger spoke at a Lifetime Learning webinar entitled “The Health of Our Democracy and the Rule of Law in 2025" sponsored by the Snow Library in Orleans, MA and available nationally. 

Oct 18, 2025
The Fulcrum

When Belief Becomes Law: The Rise of Executive Rule and the Vanishing of Facts

During his successful defense of the British soldiers accused of killing Americans in the Boston Massacre of 1770, John Adams, the nation's second president, famously observed that "facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations or the dictates of passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

Times have changed. When President Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, saying that the jobs numbers compiled by the agency's nonpartisan analysts and experts "were RIGGED” some pundits observed that you can fire the umpire, but you can’t change the score.

Oct 17, 2025
Boston College Law

Accountability Counts

A concerned mood hung in the room as the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy assembled a panel of experts on October 8 to discuss the subject of professional accountability for lawyers in a moment of rising anxiety about the rule of law.

The panel, titled “Sword or Shield? Bar Discipline in a Polarized Era,” was moderated by BC Law Professor Michael Cassidy, who is also the outgoing Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers.

Oct 15, 2025
The Fulcrum

Trump's Orders Threaten Transgender Americans’ Rights

The Trump administration is threatening the existence of transgender people. It is demonizing them, seeking to erase them from society, and preventing them from living healthy lives.

Transgender Identity Has Long Been Misunderstood

Transgender people experience a significant and persistent disconnect between the gender they experience and their assigned sex. Known as gender dysphoria, this puts one’s body at odds with one’s self. Most transgender people experience gender dysphoria when they are young, often leading to a desire to transition to the gender not assigned to them at birth.

Oct 13, 2025
Just Security

Attacks on U.S. Legal Profession Reflect Global Slide in Countries It Once Aided

Crackdowns on the legal profession — lawyers, judges and prosecutors — are part of a longstanding authoritarian playbook used around the world to silence dissent. Europe and Eurasia alone provide a plethora of examples — from European Union member Hungary — and previously Poland — to Belarus, Russia, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan — governments seeking to centralize control have openly and systematically targeted those who defend the rule of law.

The tactics differ, but the aim is the same: to silence lawyers who represent politically targeted clients, judges who issue rulings that contradict the repressive government’s political – and often personal — aims, and prosecutors who pursue cases against its favored allies. Whether through formal legislation or informal pressure, these measures aim to curtail legal advocacy, judicial independence, and the rule of law itself.

Oct 8, 2025
Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Boston College

Panel: Sword or Shield? Bar Discipline in a Polarized Era

LDAD Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen was recently a panelist on a panel sponsored by the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy entitled Sword or Shield? Bar Discipline in a Polarized Era. Against the backdrop of recent high-profile cases in Massachusetts and nationally, the discussion explores how the profession enforces its own ethical standards and where the line lies between zealous advocacy and misconduct. By bringing together experts from enforcement, defense, and non-profit or advocacy, the panel aims to shed light on the strengths and limits of this accountability mechanism, and to consider its role in safeguarding democracy in times of political, disciplinary, and institutional strain.

Moderated by Professor Michael Cassidy, the outgoing Chair of the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, this panel includes: Stacey Best, Executive Director, Lawyers Concerned for Lawyers, and Fmr. Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Fmr. Asst. Bar Counsel, MA Board of Bar Overseers; Hal Lieberman, Partner, Partner, Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, and Fmr. Chief Counsel, Departmental Disciplinary Comm., NY State Supreme Court; and Lauren Stiller Rikleen, Executive Director, Lawyers Defending American Democracy, Fmr. Vice-Chair, Advisory Comm. to the ABA Task Force on American Democracy, and Fmr. President, Boston Bar Assoc.

Oct 8, 2025
The Fulcrum

ICE Policy Challenged in Court for Blocking Congressional Oversight of Detention Centers

In a constitutional democracy, congressional oversight is not a courtesy—it is a cornerstone of the separation of powers enshrined in our founding documents.

Lawyers Defending American Democracy has filed an amicus brief in Neguse v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arguing that ICE’s policy restricting unannounced visits by members of Congress “directly violates federal law.” Twelve lawmakers brought this suit to challenge ICE’s new requirement that elected officials provide seven days’ notice before visiting detention facilities—an edict that undermines transparency and shields executive agencies from scrutiny.

Sep 27, 2025
The Fulcrum

Project 2025 in Action: Sounding the Alarm for Democracy

Since taking office in January 2025, the Trump administration systematically has taken steps to implement Project 2025, the authoritarian playbook created by the Heritage Foundation to radically transform our system of government. Within the first six months, nearly half of Project 2025’s hundreds of policy proposals were implemented, with additional ones being put into place in the weeks that followed. These actions touch on virtually every aspect of public and private life, leaving many Americans across the country overwhelmed, confused, exhausted, and frightened.

Sep 18, 2025
Bloomberg Law

Bar Complaints Offer ‘Imperfect Tool’ to Challenge Trump’s DOJ

Justice Department lawyers—including political appointees and career staff—are facing bar complaints over their work defending the Trump administration, but complainants alleging ethical violations shouldn’t expect swift resolution.

The Legal Accountability Center, helmed by attorney and legal advocate Michael Teter, released a bar complaint Wednesday against Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche alleging conflicts of interest in his review of Ghislaine Maxwell’s testimony on matters related to Jeffrey Epstein, and against DOJ Special Attorney Ed Martin accusing him of multiple professional conduct violations.

Sep 9, 2025
WBAI 99.5 FM

Lauren Stiller Rikleen on Law of the Land with Gloria J. Browne-Marshall (radio program on WBAI 99.5 FM New York City)

LDAD executive director Lauren Stiller Rikleen was a guest on the Law of the Land with Gloria J. Browne-Marshall radio program on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City. The interview focused on key initiatives of LDAD and the important role that lawyers must play at this critical time.

Aug 13, 2025
The Bulwark

‘Alligator Alcatraz’ Is a Moral Stain

Kristi Noem said it will be used to “lock up some of the worst scumbags”—but its inmates haven’t been convicted of violating any laws. 

You may have seen the picture above - it’s an AI-generated image of four alligators standing next to each other just outside a fence topped with razor wire, behind which is a prison lookout tower. Each of the alligators is wearing a black cap on which “ICE” is written in large white letters. Posted by the official X account of the Department of Homeland Security in late June, the picture was apparently intended as a humorous reference to the newly erected federal detention facility in the Everglades, dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz.” There is nothing humorous about it.

Aug 28, 2025
The Fulcrum

Trump Targets Voting Rights and Suppresses Voting

Two months into his second term, President Trump began attacking the most important pillar of our democracy: free and fair elections.

On March 25, he issued Executive Order 14248, Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections.

Instead of preserving and protecting voting rights, however, the executive order and related actions by the administration will undermine free and fair elections by suppressing voting.

For nearly 100 years following the Civil War, discriminatory practices such as poll taxes and literacy tests prevented African Americans in the South from voting. To ensure that American citizens can freely exercise their right to vote, laws like the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibit these discriminatory practices.

Aug 13, 2025
The Fulcrum

Youth Injustice: Trump Administration Cuts Violence Prevention Programs

Just three months into his second term, the Trump Administration abruptly terminated 373 grants worth about $500 million from the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP). The grants were ended without any prior notice and affected programs across the country that provide support for the complete range of department activities, including juvenile and youth justice, violence prevention, child protection, policing and prosecution, and victims’ services.

Most of these cuts attacked multi-year programs that were already in progress. The result? Critically important violence prevention services are no longer available for those most in need.

Aug 2, 2025
The Fulcrum

Trump’s Executive Order Targets Civil Rights and Academic Freedom in Higher Education

From the very start of his second term, President Trump has been on the attack against colleges and universities over two of the most precious cornerstones of our democracy: civil rights and academic freedom.

On January 21, Trump issued Executive Order 14173, entitled Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. The executive order targets but does not define the phrase “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI). Instead, the executive order uses highly charged and subjective language to demean DEI programs and policies throughout the economy including in higher education, calling them “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences” and claiming that they can violate federal civil rights laws. 

Jul 27, 2025
The Fulcrum

Trump’s Plot Against America’s Schools Sparks National Outrage

Our public education system is under attack. On March 20, after only seven weeks in office and without input or approval from Congress, President Trump issued an executive order instructing the Secretary of Education to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education and give the states sole responsibility for educating our nation’s children.”

The U.S. Congress created the Department of Education in 1979, and its leader, the Secretary of Education, is a member of the President's cabinet.

Jul 18, 2025
The Fulcrum

Trump Funding Cuts Endanger Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Survivors

The Trump administration’s funding cuts and new rules for grants are threatening critical programs from food and housing to medical research, parks, and much more. Among them are programs proven to prevent and reduce violence as well as initiatives that assist survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other acts of violence.

This essay is the latest in our series on The Fulcrum explaining how the administration’s executive actions harm individuals throughout the country and demonstrate the link between these actions and their roots in Project 2025.

Jul 15, 2025
Miami Herald

Legal group urges state Supreme Court to order Florida Bar to investigate Bondi

Snubbed by The Florida Bar last month, about 70 liberal-leaning scholars, attorneys and former judges have asked the state Supreme Court to order the Bar to investigate their complaint claiming U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi violated Florida’s ethics rules as the nation’s top law enforcement official.

Jul 15, 2025
AOL.com (reposted from Tampa Free Press)

Advocates Push Florida Supreme Court For AG Pam Bondi Probe

A coalition of legal advocacy groups and attorneys has formally petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to intervene and order the Florida Bar to conduct a full investigation into alleged unethical conduct by Florida Bar member and current Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi. The move comes after the Florida Bar reportedly rejected an initial complaint detailing accusations of professional misconduct that advocates argue threaten the rule of law and the administration of justice.

Jul 15, 2025
Law360

Advocates Turn To Florida High Court For Bondi Ethics Probe

A group of attorneys, law professors and former judges asked the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday to order the Florida Bar to investigate U. S. Attorney General Pam Bondi for alleged unethical conduct. 

Jul 15, 2025
Tampa Free Press

Advocates Push Florida Supreme Court For AG Pam Bondi Probe

A coalition of legal advocacy groups and attorneys has formally petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to intervene and order the Florida Bar to conduct a full investigation into alleged unethical conduct by Florida Bar member and current Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi. The move comes after the Florida Bar reportedly rejected an initial complaint detailing accusations of professional misconduct that advocates argue threaten the rule of law and the administration of justice.

Jul 5, 2025
Legal AF Podcast

LDAD on MediasTouch Legal AF Podcast

Melba Pearson interviewed LDAD Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen for the MeidasTouch Legal AF podcast. The interview featured a wide-ranging conversation about the work of Lawyers Defending American Democracy. We hope you will watch the interview and join LDAD in its efforts to protect the rule of law and our justice system.

Jun 30, 2025
The Fulcrum

Project 2025 and the Assault on Immigrant Rights

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” Those enduring words from the poem by Emma Lazarus were inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty about 160 years ago. Today, Donald Trump routinely delivers a very different message. As he sees it, nations around the world “are emptying their mental institutions and insane asylums,” and sending the residents to the United States. “They are also coming from Africa, the Congo in Africa, from prisons in Congo.” 

Jun 10, 2025
The Contrarian

The New Norm at Elite Law Firms: Abandoning Ideals

Until a few months ago, the law firm Goodwin Procter had made its commitment to address historic inequalities central to its public branding. Lately, however, it has modeled the obsessive handwashing of Lady Macbeth, scrubbing the damned spot of diversity from its existence.

The behavior exemplifies yet another elite firm deferring to presidential overreach.

Jun 6, 2025
Bloomberg Law

Conference Report: Attorney Discipline Moves Into Public Eye

Most attorney disciplinary complaints come from people with personal knowledge of the lawyer’s conduct, but a recent rise in filings based on public information has stirred up questions about standing, the public interest, confidentiality, and regulators’ handling of duplicate filings.

Speaking May 30 at the American Bar Association’s 50th National Conference on Professional Responsibility, Renee Knake Jefferson, Professor of Law at the University of Houston, observed that nonprofit advocacy groups such as Fix the Court and The 65 Project have played a role in the increased number of public complaints.

Jun 6, 2025
Newsweek

Pam Bondi Accused of 'Serious Misconduct' in Florida Bar Complaint

US Attorney General Pam Bondi has been accused of "serious professional misconduct" in an ethics complaint filed with the Florida Bar, signed by 70 people.

The signatories include liberal and moderate-leaning law professors, attorneys, and retired chief justices of the Florida Supreme Court. They accused Bondi of misconduct that "threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice."

Jun 6, 2025
Common Dreams

70+ Legal Experts Accuse Pam Bondi of 'Serious Professional Misconduct'

Over 70 legal experts and a trio of organizations have sent the Florida Bar an ethics complaint calling for an investigation and "appropriate sanctions" against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, accusing her of engaging in "serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice."

The 23-page complaint, filed Thursday, is signed by Democracy Defenders Fund, Lawyers Defending American Democracy, Lawyers for the Rule of Law, and individual attorneys, law professors, and former judges. It was first reported by the Miami Herald.

Jun 6, 2025
The Fulcrum

Thoughts on Gathering Storms

The North American hurricane season runs from June 1 through November 30. The season, therefore, is hard upon us, even as the federal government is not prepared for what it may bring.

For the past 45 years, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been responsible for planning and providing national emergency relief to areas in the path of or affected by catastrophic storms the season often brings. The National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), both of which are embedded in FEMA, provide critical information that FEMA used in its storm preparation process.

Jun 5, 2025
Law.com

70 Signatures: Florida Bar Gets Complaint Against Pam Bondi 

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi is under fire from a coalition of about 70 legal professionals, including retired Florida Supreme Court justices, who filed an ethics complaint with the Florida Bar accusing her of serious misconduct.

But a Department of Justice spokesman pushed back, calling the effort a performative attempt to weaponize the attorney discipline process. However, the group behind the complaint claims Bondi has politicized the Justice Department, pressuring federal lawyers to prioritize President Donald Trump’s political agenda over legal ethics.
Jennifer Krell-Davis of the Florida Bar confirmed the receipt of the complaint, but did not elaborate further, per bar rules.

Jun 5, 2025
Law360

Attorney Coalition Asks Florida Bar To Open Ethics Probe Into Bondi

A group of lawyers, law professors and former judges asked the Florida Bar on Thursday to open an ethics investigation into Pam Bondi's actions as attorney general, saying she has pushed U.S. Department of Justice attorneys to violate their ethical obligations under the guise of "zealous advocacy."

Lawyers Defending American Democracy, Democracy Defenders Fund and Lawyers for the Rule of Law told the Florida Bar that Bondi "has engaged in serious professional misconduct that threatens the rule of law and the administration of justice" from her first day in office, when she sent a memorandum telling DOJ attorneys they had to "zealously defend" the government and threatened to discipline or terminate those who refuse to sign briefs or appear in court.

Jun 5, 2025
The Miami Herald

Florida Bar complaint accuses Bondi of ‘misconduct’ as U.S. Attorney General

During her Senate confirmation hearing for U.S. Attorney General, Pam Bondi tip-toed around whether she would stand up to President Donald Trump’s pressure on the Justice Department, promising only in a broad sense that “politics has to be taken out of this system.”

Since her confirmation in February, Bondi has earned the praise of conservative Republicans for loyally following Trump’s agenda while drawing the wrath of critics on the Democratic spectrum who say she has politicized the Justice Department on issues ranging from illegal immigration to public corruption.

May 30, 2025
American Bar Association Event

LDAD Board Member and Co-Founder Gary Ratner's Speech at ABA Event

Below please find the transcript from a presentation made by Gershon (“Gary”) Ratner, board member and co-founder of Lawyers Defending American Democracy. These remarks were delivered at the American Bar Association’s 50th National Conference on Professional Responsibility. Attorney Ratner was one of several distinguished lawyers participating on a panel entitled: “How to Proceed? Addressing the Public’s Interest and the Profession’s Concern When
Discipline Complaints Are Based on Public Information, Not Personal Knowledge.”

May 23, 2025
The Fulcrum

Impact of Trump’s Executive Actions: Attacks on Lawyers and the Legal Profession

In this installment, we examine executive orders and related actions that impact the independence and integrity of lawyers and the legal profession, both within and beyond the Department of Justice (DOJ). This column focuses on measures taken by the Trump administration that target law firms perceived as opposing the President. These firms may have engaged in litigation challenging the current or previous administration’s actions or employed attorneys who have done so—or are perceived to have done so. Additionally, other executive actions have raised concerns about broader threats to the legal system’s independence.

May 22, 2025
International Bar Association

US presidency: law firms face targeted executive orders that undermine independence of profession

A US district judge has permanently barred the implementation of an executive order issued by President Donald Trump against law firm Perkins Coie. 

The order was issued in March as one of several targeting ‘big law’ firms in the US. These orders suspended the security clearances held by the firms, eliminated any government contracts they held, and limited access to government buildings and resources. Those targeted have represented political adversaries of President Trump or causes he opposes.

May 15, 2025
Verdict

The President’s Orders Targeting Law Firms as Unconstitutional Bills of Attainder—Damning Lessons from the Past

“Sentence first, verdict afterwards,” the Queen in Alice in Wonderland insisted at the trial of the Knave of Hearts for stealing the Queen’s tarts. Such an upside-down process obviously leaves quite a bit to be desired, but compared to the process provided by President Donald Trump’s executive orders announcing and inflicting debilitating penalties on particular law firms, it’s not all that bad. After all, the Knave of Hearts, unlike the targeted firms, at least got some sort of trial before punishment was announced.

May 5, 2025
Florida Bar News

Retired Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy A. Quince to be honored with the 2025 Selig I. Goldin Memorial Award

Retired Florida Supreme Court Justice Peggy A. Quince has been selected to receive the Criminal Law Section’s 2025 Selig I. Goldin Memorial Award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to Florida’s criminal justice system and her enduring commitment to the practice of criminal law.

“Justice Quince’s continued efforts to improve and safeguard the criminal justice system have ensured justice for countless individuals,” said Criminal Law Section Chair Patricia Dawson. “Her influence has improved the delivery of justice throughout Florida courts, and we owe her much gratitude.”

May 2, 2025
WBUR

Lawyers in Boston protest Trump administration on National Law Day 

More than 200 lawyers and advocates protested attacks on law firms and the norms of due process by the Trump administration on Boston Common Thursday.

“The rule of law is not abstract,” said Matthew McTygue, president of the Boston Bar Association. “It’s the backbone of civil society.”

In 40 cities across the country, legal professionals and advocates rallied against the administration’s unprecedented orders against law firms and its deportation actions against lawful U.S. residents, including students, at times without due process.

May 1, 2025
Boston Public Radio Podcast

Best Of Boston Public Radio: Lawyers Defending American Democracy

LDAD co-founder and board chair, Scott Harshbarger, and LDAD executive director Lauren Stiller Rikleen were guests on WGBH’s iconic Boston Public Radio show hosted by Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to discuss the current disarray in the legal profession resulting from the elite firms who capitulated to the President. 

Apr 30, 2025
Bloomberg Law

Trump Exposes US Legal System Soft Spots in 100-Day Onslaught

Lawyers choose their clients. Federal prosecutors need independence. And judges expect their orders to be followed. Those foundations of the American legal system are being tested by President Donald Trump in his first 100 days back in office, with a barrage of moves exposing weaknesses that can be exploited by a powerful executive.

Trump is reshaping the Justice Department in the image of his own personal legal team and seeking to discredit—or even ignore—judges who rule against him. A Supreme Court showdown over the president’s powers appears inevitable, with Trump’s team eager to get final rulings on some of their top initiatives. At the same time, Trump has sought to sideline private attorneys that might otherwise join the fight by attacking major firms in a series of orders and striking deals with those that want to avoid the same fate.

Apr 28, 2025
The Contrarian

The first 100 days—then and now

As President Donald Trump reaches the 100-day milestone, an instructive point of comparison is with Frankin D. Roosevelt’s enormous achievements in the same period. FDR, in his first 100 days, presented and got passed through Congress legislation to help the country emerge from the Great Depression. Trump, too, was elected amid significant challenges, some of which flow from stagnant wages, job losses caused by automation, rising food prices and increased global economic competition. Unlike FDR, though, Trump is not focused on solutions to those problems. 

Instead, as those problems proliferate, he has focused on destruction of governmental structures on which every person in this country in some way depends. He has shattered world alliances, attacked the federal government and created national and international chaos.

Apr 24, 2025
Common Dreams

US Lawyers Coalition Says Elite Firms Have Only One Choice: Capitulate to Trump—Or Fight Back

In an open letter published Wednesday, amid the Trump administration's unprecedented scrutiny on Big Law, multiple legal groups are calling on elite American law firms to convene and coordinate a unified response to U.S. President Donald Trump's "unconstitutional actions" and "threats to the rule of law and system of justice."

The legal groups include the coalition Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD), the coalition Lawyers Allied Under Rule of Law, and the Steady State—which, according to the executive director of LDAD, "formed in the first Trump term as a loose association that maintained a low internet profile because many members were in government," but has "become much more organized and active" in response to the president's Department of Government Efficiency.

Apr 23, 2025
WBUR

Former Mass. AG calls on law firms to stand up to Trump

Massachusetts lawyers are divided on how to respond to President Trump's executive orders against law firms.

One of the law firms singled out was Boston-based WilmerHale. The firm sued, and a federal judge temporarily blocked the President's order. But the majority of local big firms are quiet.

Scott Harshbargar, former state attorney general and chairman of Lawyers Defending American Democracy,  joins WBUR's Morning Edition to discuss how extraordinary this moment is for the legal profession.

Apr 17, 2025
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: The Health of Our Democracy and the Rule of Law in 2025

Webinar hosted by Friends of Snow Library featuring Scott Harshbarger, Former Attorney-General of MA and National President of Common Cause and Chair of Lawyers Defending American Democracy.

On this webinar, Scott discusses the strength and fragility of democracy and the rule of law in 2025 as the new and former president transitions into office and seeks to implement the campaign agenda and promises that seem to have the approval of a majority of our fellow citizens who voted. With Republican majorities in both the House and Senate, the continuing conservative Supreme Court, and the appointment and influence of powerful private sector leaders and donors, will the Center hold? Will traditional norms, values, and principles that heretofore deemed fundamental to our democracy prevail?

Apr 15, 2025
The Fulcrum

The Impact of President Trump’s Executive Actions

Since taking office, President Trump has fired off a barrage of sweeping executive orders that reach into the federal government, higher education, business, and other institutions. But how does all of this affect you and your family?

Lawyers Defending American Democracy, a nonpartisan organization aimed at protecting democracy and the rule of law, hopes to answer that question through a series of deep dives into the actual impacts of all this frenetic activity.

Apr 14, 2025
Bloomberg Law

We Need Law Students to Clean the Stain on the Legal Profession

Lawyers Defending American Democracy’s Lauren Stiller Rikleen says law students can put pressure on Big Law firms that have made agreements with the Trump administration and encourage those that are resisting.

Now that nine of the largest firms in the US have chosen their own financial interests over protecting the rule of law, leverage in the form of courage remains hard to find. But law students may offer some hope.

Apr 7, 2025
The Fulcrum

The End of the American Era

In less than 100 days, President Donald Trump has destroyed relationships that have existed for250 years. The list of alienated friends is growing, with potentially dangerous consequences for the United States. And the recent and shocking failure of the country’s entire national security leadership to protect deeply sensitive information about an attack, seeds further reasons to distrust a long-trusted voice.

Apr 3, 2025
Bloomberg Law

Skadden's Trump Deal Spells Change for Prestigious Fellowship

A four-decade-old launchpad for public interest attorneys is getting an overhaul as part of President Donald Trump’s deal with Wall Street law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

Skadden committed $100 million in pro bono work on causes aligned with Trump’s priorities, the president announced March 28. It also agreed to make changes to its prestigious, left-leaning fellowship program, pledging to include politically conservative participants and dedicate at least five spots to projects like “ensuring fairness” in the justice system and fighting antisemitism.

Apr 2, 2025
Harvard Law School, Center on the Legal Profession

Why American Lawyers Must Fight Democratic Backsliding

David B. Wilkins, faculty director of the Center on the Legal Profession, sat down with Scott L. Cummings, the Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics at the UCLA School of Law, to talk about democratic backsliding in the United States and what the legal profession can do.

Mar 31, 2025
The Week

Law firms: Caving to White House pressure

But when Paul Weiss looked to its peers to stand with it against Trump, Karp says rival firms instead tried to poach his lawyers and clients. The profession is at a fatal juncture, said Lauren Stiller Rikleen in The Boston Globe. Lawyers can either launch “a principled fight” to uphold the rule of law or let the U.S. become a “place where democracy is just another banned word.”

Apr 1, 2025
The Fulcrum

It’s time to defend the guardrails of democracy

Lawyers know that President Trump’s executive orders targeting individual law firms, and now, theentire legal profession, are illegal and unconstitutional. The situation puts a choice to every lawyer and every law firm. Do you fight – speak out and act out against this lawless behavior? Or do you accommodate it, keep your head down, and wait for the storm to pass?

The answer is to fight. Here’s why – and here’s what lawyers should do.

Mar 25, 2025
CNN International's Quest Means Business

LDAD executive committee chair Evan Falchuk on CNN International

LDAD executive committee chair Evan Falchuk appeared on CNN International's Quest Means Business with host Richard Quest. The interview included a discussion about the legal profession's failure to push back against the administration's attacks on the legal profession and the rule of law.

Mar 24, 2025
The Bulwark

Trump’s Not Just Attacking Law Firms. He’s Assaulting the Rule of Law.

FRESH FROM HIS VICTORY LAST WEEK bringing the law firm of Paul Weiss to kiss the ring of autocracy, President Donald Trump on Saturday issued an unprecedented memo directing the attorney general and secretary of homeland security to take a series of actions to penalize what he called “abuses of the legal system and the federal court [sic].”

Although it might appear that the new edict, with its accusations and threats, is an attack on the independence of lawyers, law firms, and the legal profession writ large, in fact its real target is any person or entity in the country who wants to vindicate their rights in court. It’s a fundamental assault on the rule of law.

Mar 21, 2025
The Boston Globe

In appeasing Trump, law firm surrendered long-held principles

The once proud law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP has chosen to kiss the ring of autocracy rather than stand for principle. It is a steep fall for a once mighty institution.

Like so many other targets of an administration that knows no legal boundaries, Paul, Weiss was the recipient of an executive order issued by President Trump. This one was a punishment for the work of a former law partner who had been involved in the investigation of the president’s hush-money payments to Stormy Daniels when he was a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office. 

Mar 19, 2025
The Hill

The law must not bend to Trump’s crusade of political retribution

On Monday, the Trump administration continued its assault on America’s most prestigious law firms when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sent letters to 20 firms inquiring about their use of DEI in hiring. That letter suggested they may have been discriminating against white applicants.

The letters came one day after the president told Fox News, “We have a lot of law firms that we’re going to be going after because they were very dishonest people.” Last Friday, President Trump signed an executive order singling out Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and one of its lawyers, Mark Pomerantz, who had taken part in the New York hush-money case against Trump.

Mar 12, 2025
The Boston Globe

The first thing we do, let’s kill all the (Democratic) lawyers …

OK, President Trump didn’t threaten to kill lawyers, like the infamous characters in Shakespeare. But he has declared war on some of the nation’s largest law firms — and their clients. In Henry IV, murdering lawyers was to be a prelude to despotism. And it’s precisely because of the crucial role the legal profession plays in upholding the rule of law that Trump’s real-life efforts to harass and intimidate lawyers must be resisted.

That, after all, is the real point of his actions. Just as it is by ordering the deportation of one Palestinian-born protester, the goal appears to be to instill fear — fear of the wrath of the Trump administration and its well-known intention to exact retribution.

The message is that those lawyers who stand up for the rights of clients abused by the lawlessness of this administration will pay the price — and that price will be high.

Mar 7, 2025
Fulcrum

The Trump Administration’s Current Approach Discards the Rule of Law

President Donald Trump signed over 70 Executive Orders during the first thirty days of his second term, the most in a President’s first 100 days in 40 years. Many of the Executive Orders were sweeping in their scope and intentionally designed to fundamentally reshape the federal government and shatter the existing world order. Critics immediately claimed that many of the Executive Orders exceeded the President’s constitutional authority or contravened existing federal law.

At the same time, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—without Congressional authorization—has swept into multiple agencies, frozen Congressionally authorized appropriations, and terminated thousands of federal employees, many of whom are protected by civil service laws and collective bargaining agreements.

Mar 6, 2025
The Contrarian

America is at its weakest since the Civil War

True strength and leadership are measured by the depth of your relationship with your allies. Since World War II, the United States has built the strongest alliances that the world has seen, including Western Europe, key segments of the Middle East, the Indo Pacific, Australia, New Zealand and the Americas.

The formidable alliances meant that it was generally unwise for any enemies of significance to take on the United States in a symmetrical war. The wars or conflicts involving the United States since the end of WWII have been fought on foreign soil without any major threat of the war expanding to Western Europe or the U.S. mainland.

Feb 24, 2025
Law and Disorder Podcast

Law and Disorder Podcast: LDAD Interview

On the Law and Disorder Podcast, LDAD executive director Lauren Stiller Rikleen spoke about Project 2025 and its extremist blueprint for governance, foreshadowing a government that would aggressively seize power, ignore long-standing legal norms and principles, and undermine the checks and balances that were meant to ensure accountability. 

Feb 21, 2025
Fulcrum

A Time to Choose Sides

Donald Trump posted a picture of himself on social media next to a quote: “He who saves his Country violates no Law” [sic]. Attributed to Napoleon, the quote means that, with the right intentions, nothing should constrain executive power. It echoes statements by Vice President Vance and others that the administration need not abide by court orders blocking their illegal and unconstitutional actions.

These statements are nothing less than a complete rejection of the American system of government. As Americans see this rejection for what it is, they aren’t going to like it. A poll, released last week from Marquette University Law School, found that 83% of those surveyed—including 77% of Republicans—believe that the President must abide by court orders. It’s why it is critically important for all Americans to see these comments in this light, and act accordingly. Many people are doing it already. Here’s what everyone needs to understand.

Feb 18, 2025
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: State of our Democracy and the Rule of Law - Sleepwalking into Autocracy

LDAD’s co-founder and chair Scott Harshbarger, the former two-term Attorney General of Massachusetts, spoke at a program by Floridians for Democracy entitled: State of our Democracy and the Rule of Law - Sleepwalking into Autocracy.

The link to the recording is available below.

Feb 11, 2025
Fulcrum

Legal community comes to the defense of the law against Trump's executive order blitz

President Donald Trump and several key members of his administration are criticizing judges who have halted parts of his second-term agenda, arguing that these judges overstep their authority in questioning his executive powers.

Vice President JD Vance has asserted that judges do not have the authority to oversee the executive powers of the Trump administration, as the White House faces a series of lawsuits to hinder its agenda. He expressed this view on X, stating, "Judges aren't allowed to control the executive's legitimate power." Vance's comments came shortly after a judge prohibited members of Trump's newly established advisory group, the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), from accessing sensitive systems within the U.S. Treasury Department.

Jan 26, 2025
Bard College: Hannah Arendt Center

Project Presidential Power

“Open disregard for law and legal institutions and ideological justification of lawlessness” as well as “contempt for law” are, Hannah Arendt writes, “characteristic of all movements.” Arendt continues that under the rule of decree, “power, which in constitutional government only enforces the law, becomes the direct source of all legislation.” Lauren Stiller Rikleen argues that the barrage of Executive Orders coming out of the White House are part of a concerted attack on democracy and the rule of law.

On Friday evening, the President fired twelve congressionally-approved Inspector Generals at various federal agencies, violating a law that requires the President to submit a written explanation to Congress of why he is firing the inspector general with 30 days notice. I am sure there will be lawsuits. Some will prevail. But if Congress refuses to pushback on this and other attacks on its power, we will increasingly live under the rule of presidential decree.

Jan 23, 2025
Verdict

Behind Trump’s Executive Orders: Understanding Project 2025’s Master Plan

The shocked response to the barrage of Donald Trump’s Day One executive orders fails to connect the dots to the critical underlying story—the pervasive influence of Project 2025 on this administration. Understanding this throughline is fundamental to reporting what a governmental shift to autocratic rule looks like, and how to respond to its overreach and threats to the rule of law.

The blitz of executive orders will impact all aspects of the federal government and include, for example, closing the border, controlling the federal workforce, reducing worker protections, creating the Department of Government Efficiency as an above-the-law agent of government, eliminate diversity initiatives, rollback measures to address climate change, increase oil drilling, and eliminate clean energy programs.

Jan 9, 2025
Verdict

Chief Justice Roberts’s Annual Report Foreshadows a Future of Gaslighting

In his December 31 Year End Report, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts announced his New Year’s resolution: to continue gaslighting the country by blaming everyone but himself for the dishonor he has allowed to fester in his Court. He did so in the guise of offering a righteous reading of the history of judicial independence in this country.

But a closer look at what Roberts wrote reveals the same tendency to cherry-pick history that characterizes many of his and his ideologically-aligned colleague’s judicial opinions. Changing the genre did not change this troubling tendency.

Nov 13, 2024
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: Hiding in the Shadows - The Supreme Court, the Shadow Docket, and the Future of Judicial Independence

Lawyers Defending American Democracy hosted a special webinar entitled: Hiding in the Shadows - The Supreme Court, the Shadow Docket, and the Future of Judicial Independence. Our speaker was Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and the author of the bestselling book, The Shadow Docket: How the Supreme Court Uses Stealth Rulings to Amass Power and Undermine the Republic. Professor Vladeck was interviewed by journalist Ann E. Marimow, the Supreme Court Correspondent for the Washington Post.

Nov 1, 2024
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

Democracy defenders say they’re ready for whatever election day brings

As nonpartisan organizations, the ACLU of Massachusetts, Lawyers for Civil Rights, and Lawyers Defending American Democracy can’t fully acknowledge it. But one of the major party presidential candidates has created more work for them in the days leading up to the Nov. 5 election.

Oct 31, 2024
Verdict

The Kavanaugh Investigation: A Preview of Autocracy Under Project 2025

Much has been written about the dangers posed by Project 2025 to the foundations of the American system of government. Missing from this coverage, however, is the fact that its ideas are not new, as many of its proposals and plans have taken root in autocratic actions by state governments and in the previous administration.

Oct 28, 2024
Higher Callings Podcast

Listen to the Podcast: Defending Democracy and the Rule of Law - A Conversation with former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger

When a person becomes a lawyer, they take an oath. The oath is often administered in a formal bar admission ceremony. Each year in Massachusetts, many such ceremonies take place at historic Faneuil Hall. The new lawyers and their families hear speeches from judges and bar leaders, and the oath they are required to recite dates back to colonial times. 

Oct 28, 2024
The Fulcrm

The media is normalizing the abnormal

As we near the end of a tumultuous election season, too many traditional media outlets are inexplicably continuing their practice of covering candidates who meet standards of normalcy differently than the candidate who has long defied them.

Oct 24, 2024
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: How Lawyers May Anticipate Threats to Democracy in Georgia: Combatting Manipulation & Understanding Election Law Changes

LDAD, along with the Georgia Democracy Task Force and American Bar Association Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice, hosted an important conversation about threats to the rule of law during the 2024 election, including changes to state election rules in Georgia and in other states, the impact of manipulated and false narratives on the election, fears of violence and hostility during the election, and how to engage directly in supporting the rule of law.

Oct 21, 2024
Ms. Magazine

Project 2025 Would Establish an Unborn Uber Class

If the architects of Project 2025 get their way, the U.S. government would anoint the unborn with unmatched and never-before-recognized rights over all persons already born. This article quotes LDAD's Project 2025 Talking Points.

Oct 17, 2024
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: Beyond November 5

On October 17, 2024, Third Act Lawyers hosted a webinar with Lauren Stiller Rikleen, the Executive Director of Lawyers Defending American Democracy. In her conversation with Third Act Lawyer Mark Friedman, Lauren provided resources and advice for lawyers and non-lawyers alike who want to join in democracy defense efforts.  

To view the recording, please use the passcode at the link below: a&H0yKQ#

Oct 16, 2024
The Fulcrum

What kind of America do you want?

On Nov. 5, in elections around the country, we will determine whether these United States of America will continue to aspire to be a democratic republic or whether this country will give up its freedoms and embrace authoritarianism.

Oct 16, 2024
Verdict

Trump’s Election Lawyers Must Heed Their Ethical Duties

Free and fair elections are essential to American democracy, never more so than when we choose our President. Donald Trump tried to undermine this bedrock principle in 2020 and gives every indication that he will do the same in 2024 if he loses. Trump relied on lawyers to plan and implement false claims of a stolen election in 2020, and no doubt will do so this year as well.

Sept 15, 2024
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: When Lawyers Attack the Rule of Law 

LDAD hosted an important conversation addressing how the behaviors of lawyers can contribute to the erosion of democracies and the creation of autocracies. Scott L. Cummings, the Robert Henigson Professor of Legal Ethics at the UCLA School of Law and winner of a 2023 Guggenheim Fellow, was interviewed by Boston Globe Senior Opinion Writer and Columnist, Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Attorney Stohr also serves as an on-air political analyst and is co-host of the legal news podcast, #SistersInLaw.

Sep 5, 2024
The Fulcrum

By focusing on outrage, the media risks alienating younger audiences

As attacks on democracy and the rule of law continually increase, much of the media refuses to address its role in intensifying the peril.

Instead of asking hard questions and insisting on answers, traditional media outlets increasingly trade news and facts for speculative commentary that ignores a story’s contextual significance. At the same time, social media outlets and influencers stoke anger as an alternative to thoughtfulness.

Aug 9, 2024
The Fulcrum

Kamala Harris is Black & Asian and Why Does Trump Care?

Former President Donald Trump, the son of an immigrant mother and descendant of an immigrant grandfather, recently challenged the “Blackness” of Vice President Kamala Harris. He did so even though race is a superficial concept, based on characteristics such as skin color, facial features and other physical attributes. As a scientific concept, it has been thoroughly debunked.

During most of American history, the concept of “colored” varied from state to state under the law, with nonsense characterizations like the one drop rule, the one-eighth rule and a variety of other perverse permutations. These laws were used to deny people of color the rights and privileges provided primarily to white male Christians. 

Aug 9, 2024
Lawfare

Preserving Constitutional Democracy: A Tale of Two Lawyers

Two nationally significant legal stories spread across newspapers on Aug. 2. They flew in opposite directions and reflected opposite kinds of legal leadership and imperatives. The stories carried important meaning for every lawyer—indeed, every citizen—as to what it takes to protect our constitutional republic from the assault former President Donald Trump and many close to him have waged against it over nearly a decade.

Indeed, the lesson that the Aug. 2 stories tell encapsulates the key political-legal battle of our time: the effort to tear down the norms, standards, and guardrails of constitutionalism versus the power of legal institutions to stand, if defended, as bulwarks of freedom and stability.

July 24, 2024
The Fulcrum

The Supreme Court and the rule of law

Events are now occurring at a breathtaking pace that leaves us in a perpetual cycle of breaking news and ramped-up emotions. Yet, within this maelstrom, our north star must be the rule of law — and protecting it when endangered.

The rule of law is endangered when a presidential candidate is nearly assassinated at his own rally by a 20-year-old armed with a semi-automatic rifle, whose accuracy killed a father shielding his family. It is further endangered by those who use this tragedy for political advantage, casting blame in the absence of a known motive as to why an unstable young man with access to a gun wreaked havoc on the country.

July 15, 2024
Casner & Edwards

LDAD Co-Founder and Chair Attorney Scott Harshbarger Named to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly “Hall of Fame”

LDAD Co-Founder, Chair, and former Massachusetts Attorney General and Senior Counsel, Scott Harshbarger, was selected as a Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly 2024 “Hall of Fame” honoree. In its second year, the Hall of Fame recognizes top Massachusetts lawyers who have been practicing for more than 30 years and demonstrated impressive career accomplishments, contributions to the bar, and a consistent effort to improve the accessibility and quality of justice in the Commonwealth. Harshbarger and fellow honorees will be celebrated at a reception in Boston on September 17. 

July 15, 2024
Bloomberg Law

Pro-Trump Lawyer Kurt Olsen Faces Call for Discipline Over Ethics

Another lawyer involved in actions to undermine the results of the 2020 and 2022 elections is now facing calls for professional discipline.

Attorney Kurt Olsen, who counseled former President Donald Trump in his attempt to use the U.S. Justice Department to overturn his 2020 election loss, is at the center of an ethics complaint filed by pro-democracy groups last week.

July 12, 2024
The Baltimore Sun

Attorney who defended election deniers faces ethics complaints in Maryland

Pro-Democracy groups are calling for an investigation into misconduct against attorney Kurt Olsen for his role in attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 and 2022 elections.

The States United Democracy Center and Lawyers Defending American Democracy filed ethics complaints against him with the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission and the District of Columbia’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel on Thursday.

Jun 26, 2024
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: Protecting Democracy and the Rule of Law - A Lawyer's Unique Responsibility

LDAD was proud to co-sponsor the New York State Bar Association's webinar: Protecting Democracy and the Rule of Law - A Lawyer's Unique Responsibility. This program was also cosponsored by the American Bar Association Task Force and Advisory Commission on American Democracy, as well as the Divided Community Project at the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. 

June 20, 2024
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: Ideas to Action - How Your Bar Can Promote the Rule of Law Right Now

Today’s bar leaders face singular challenges to the rule of law and American democracy. The National Conference of Bar Presidents, as part of its 21st Century Lawyers initiative, invited LDAD's executive director to participate in its June 20, 2024, webinar entitled: Ideas to Action - How Your Bar Can Promote the Rule of Law Right Now. This program was designed to focus on those who are working on democracy every day, testing ideas and learning what works and what does not. The panelists discussed a range of possible programs and actions that bar leaders can take.

June 3, 2024
The Bulwark

Recent Scandals Reveal Weakness of the New SCOTUS Code of Conduct

THE RULES DON’T APPLY TO THE SUPREME COURT. That’s the message Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have sent with their responses to the cascading scandals impugning their independence, nonpartisanship, and personal integrity.

It is also, as a legal matter, true. Justices Thomas and Alito are immune from the restrictions placed on other federal judges to protect the judiciary—the only rules that bind them are ones they wrote for themselves.

May 28, 2024
Colorado Newsline

Judge approves 3-year law license suspension for Jenna Ellis, former Trump lawyer

The Colorado law license of Jenna Ellis, previously an attorney for former President Donald Trump, will be suspended for three years under the terms of an agreement approved by a judge Tuesday.

Gillian Feiner, senior counsel at States United Democracy Center, which along with Lawyers Defending American Democracy in December had formally requested that Colorado officials pursue disciplinary action against Ellis after her guilty plea in Georgia, issued a statement Tuesday after the suspension was announced.

May 14, 2024
Daily Kos

Will Justice Delayed Be Justice Denied? Update on the TX Bar Disciplinary Complaints

The current focus on the Trump criminal trial in New York (along with the other pending criminal trials and potentially dangerous U.S. Supreme Court ruling on immunity)—like so many Trump atrocities that produce the almighty “engagement” sought by the corporate media—can make us forget that Trump had the assistance of dozens of cronies and co-conspirators in his bid to overturn the 2020 election.

May 1, 2024
Webinar

Watch the Webinar: Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association Law Day Webinar

The annual observance of Law Day occurs on May 1, to recognize and celebrate the rule of law. As bar associations around the country undertake Law Day programming, lawyers should consider how they can engage to protect our democratic institutions. LDAD's executive director was a featured presenter at a webinar sponsored by the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association to discuss the role of lawyers in protecting democracy and the rule of law.

Apr 26, 2024
The Boston Globe

One Rhode Islander’s role in defending American democracy

If you've been around Rhode Island legal, political, and civic circles over the last couple of decades, there's a good chance you've crossed paths with R. Kelly Sheridan.

He’s a retired partner at Roberts, Carroll, Feldstein & Peirce, where he was one of the best-known lobbyists in the state, and is a former president of the Rhode Island Bar Association and chairman of the Champlin Foundation.

Apr 23, 2024
Verdict

Restoring Confidence in Elections: The ALI’s Timely Statement on Ethical Standards

The hotly contested 2020 Presidential Election was filled with complaints—not only about the election results, but also about the voting process itself. Aggregated and escalated, those complaints led not only to litigation, but also to doubts in some quarters about the reliability of the results the process produced. As we look ahead to November, it is likely that the voting process will again be severely tested unless confidence-inducing changes to the process are made.

Apr 12, 2024
The Verdict

How Not to Restore Public Confidence in the Supreme Court

"Because of people’s already much-depleted confidence in the Court, and because of all that’s at stake for the nation in Trump v. United States, Justice Thomas’s refusal to recuse may well be not simply one more blow to public confidence in the Court, but a blow with the potential to damage that confidence beyond repair."

Apr 11, 2024
The Dallas Morning News

Texas bar should act soon on Sidney Powell case

One by one, the lawyers who helped Donald Trump try to steal the 2020 election are being held accountable. The most recent example came a few weeks ago. A California judge recommended permanent disbarment for John Eastman for his role in devising so-called legal strategy to overturn the election.  

Apr 9, 2024
The Fulcrum

Disinformation underlies bans on care for transgender adolescents

In the past three years, 23 states have passed legislation that prohibits physicians and other health care providers from providing gender affirming health care to transgender minors. These laws constitute an extreme, unprecedented attack on transgender adolescents, their families and the medical providers who care for them.

Mar 25, 2024
The National Law Journal

What to Watch for at Ex-DOJ Official Jeffrey Clark's Ethics Hearing This Week

In addressing the D.C. Bar's legal action against former Department of Justice Attorney Jeffry Clark, the National Law Journal quoted LDAD board member: "The rule of law depends on the assurance that there will be accountability for illegal and unethical behavior by participants in our legal system...The DC Bar has charged Mr. Clark with engaging in dishonest conduct in an attempt to interfere with the transfer of power in the 2020 presidential election,” Montgomery added. “All lawyers—including those who operate at the highest levels of our government—must adhere to the ethical constraints imposed by the code.”

Mar 25, 2024
The Bulwark

No Candor, No Credibility: Hiring RNC Ronna Is a Flub for NBC

NBC’s hiring of Ronna McDaniel, the recently ousted chair of the Republican National Committee, as a commentator is a disservice to viewers and to its own journalists. It is also yet another in a long line of disturbing examples of how political misinformation is being normalized. The network should not be able to get away with its whitewashing of McDaniel.

This article also appeared in The Week and Yahoo News.

Mar 19, 2024
The New York Times

Ethics Panels Dismiss Complaints Against Former Lawyer for Jan. 6 Witness

The witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, declined to cooperate with the inquiries by repeating to investigators the allegations she had made to Congress about Mr. Passantino, whom she replaced as her lawyer before testifying publicly to the House Jan. 6 committee. Mr. Passantino has denied the allegations that he pressured her.

Feb 29, 2024
The Sun Sentinel

The Florida Legislature’s obsession with communism is so 1952 | Editorial

An organization called Lawyers Defending American Democracy has documented anti-democratic trends in Florida, Arizona, Iowa, Tennessee and Texas.

The report faulted Florida for curbing voting by mail; anti-diversity policies in schools and universities; infringing on teaching race, sexism and slavery; crackdowns on undocumented immigrants and gender-related medical care; 15-week and 6-week abortion bans[...]"

Feb 22, 2024
Legal Ethics Roundup

Interview with LDAD

The Legal Ethics Roundup is a "Monday morning tour" of all things related to lawyer and judicial ethics with University of Houston law professor Renee Knake Jefferson. In this feature, Renee explores the work of LDAD with three members of the organization: Gary Ratner, Cheryl Niro, and executive director Lauren Stiller Rikleen.

Feb 29, 2024
The Fulcrum

Alabama, religious freedom and frozen embryos

LDAD Board Member James McHugh authors this timely and important article about the concurring opinion of Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker in LePage v. The Center for Reproductive Medicine, P.C. In it he cautions. "It is difficult enough for the government to deal in democratic fashion with the often-difficult issues that lie at the intersection of individual autonomy, constitutional rights and public policy. Injecting religion into that process dramatically reduces the likelihood that the process will continue to produce useful results."

Jan 25, 2024
Duly Noted: The D.C. Bar Blog

LDAD’s Lauren Rikleen: Supreme Court Code of Conduct Must Demand Accountability

The conduct of U.S. Supreme Court justices has become a subject of heightened scrutiny over the past year,LDAD Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen with revelations about the social relationships between members of the Court and influential business leaders generating broad-based criticism and calls for the Court to adopt a binding code of conduct.

Jan 7, 2024
Counsel to Counsel Podcast

On Social Justice and Defending American Democracy

Lauren Stiller Rikleen, our Executive Director joins this podcast to speak on “Her Honor – Stories of Challenge and Triumph from Women Judges,” along with the work being undertaken by Lawyers Defending Democracy. The podcast's host, Stephen Seckler, is an attorney interested in the ideas shaping the legal industry and attorneys who have done interesting and sometimes unconventional things with their careers.

Jan 5, 2024
The Fulcrum

Universities cannot be bystanders in these troubled times

Lauren Stiller Rikleen, our Executive Director and the editor of “Her Honor – Stories of Challenge and Triumph from Women Judges” writes for The Fulcrum advocating for leaders in academia to speak out with moral clarity in times of crisis. The article argues, "academic principles of free expression should not prevent a university from speaking with unequivocal clarity in matters of moral imperative. … Indeed, the highest calling of higher education should be the ability to both model courageous behavior and encourage civil discourse in ways that can serve as conflict-resolution lessons throughout life."

Dec 18, 2023
AZ Central

Sandra Day O'Connor makes a final journey to the Supreme Court

The partisan battles on Capitol Hill will take a momentary back seat Monday with the late Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor lying in repose at the court and the public paying final tribute to a historic figure. It is a daylong affair that will begin with dozens of her former law clerks from across the country on hand for the arrival of her casket in the morning.

Dec 16, 2023
The Hill

Watchdog groups push for disbarment of ex-Trump attorney Jenna Ellis over Georgia charges

Watchdog groups called for former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis’s disbarment in a letter Friday.

“We, together with the additional signatories below, write to urge the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel (OARC) to promptly commence a formal disciplinary proceeding against Jenna Ellis seeking her disbarment in light of her recent guilty plea to a felony in Georgia,” the letter from Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD) and Stand United Democracy Center reads.

Dec 16, 2023
MSN

Jenna Ellis the target of watchdog groups seeking her disbarment over Georgia case

Jenna Ellis, one of Donald Trump's former attorneys, pleaded guilty in October to election crimes related to the former president's "big lie" of 2020. That admission — along with her telling Fulton County investigators that a top aide informed her that the former president was "not going to leave" the White House despite losing the 2020 election — has drawn attention her way from groups looking to shut her down.

Dec 15, 2023
Denver Post

Former Trump attorney Jenna Ellis faces Colorado disbarment complaint following guilty plea

States United Democracy Center and Lawyers Defending American Democracy said they filed the complaint with the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, which oversees the practice of law in Colorado. States United Democracy Center filed a previous complaint against Ellis in May 2022 that led to a public censure for her conduct.

Dec 11, 2023
Verdict

Sandra Day O’Connor’s Legacy: A Beacon of Judicial Restraint and Independence in the Supreme Court

Justice O’Connor has secured her legacy as an independent Justice who respected precedent and had an instinctive understanding of where the Court should seek common ground. As public trust and confidence in the Supreme Court diminish with each radical decision, one can only hope it is not too late for the lessons of her legacy to be learned and adopted.

Dec 7, 2023
Salon

OPINION: A dictator on "day one": The time to push back on Trump is now

"Those who believe in a constitutional republic governed by the rule of law need not wait until election day to teach Trump that in America, dictatorship is not what power can do. Public response can help sidetrack a man who would be king, on “day one” and beyond."

Oct 15, 2023
The Journal of the DuPage County Bar Association

An Inflection Point for the Legal Profession

"Even the strongest democracy can be breached by unchallenged assaults."

In a seminal piece for the organization, LDAD's Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen calls on lawyers to bridge typical partisan divides and emerge from this inflection point in history with our democracy intact. 

Sept 6, 2023
Bloomberg Law

We Can’t Step Backwards on Progress Toward Colorblind Justice

Former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court Peggy Quince reflects on her journey toward a legal career and the American promise that the judiciary be fair and impartial.

"For those of us who have lived through segregation and overt racism, what is happening in today’s political environment is living life in flashback."

Aug 16, 2023
Washington Post

The ‘brains’ behind fake Trump electors was once a liberal Democrat

About 10 days after his affiliation with the Napoli firm was announced internally, a group called Lawyers Defending American Democracy filed an ethics complaint against him in New York, asking a state grievance committee to investigate his conduct and “impose appropriate sanctions.” Tribe was among dozens of high-profile legal figures who signed the complaint.

July 2023
Maryland Bar Journal

An Advocate for Democracy

Lauren Stiller Rikleen is the executive director of Lawyers Defending American Democracy, whose mission is to galvanize the legal profession to protect democracy and the rule of law. Shc recently published Her Honor: Stories of Challenges and Triumph from Women Judges.

July 7, 2023
Bloomberg Law

Moore v. Harper Affirms American Democracy and Rule of Law

There’s a reason that Moore v. Harper, the independent state legislature theory case, generated almost 70 amicus briefs in the US Supreme Court: it presented a profound threat to our democracy and the rule of law.

Moore is a victory for free and fair American elections and the rule of law over partisan politics. It’s also a victory for principled constitutional interpretation and the cohesiveness of the Supreme Court.

June 19, 2023
USA Today

Should Trump-allied lawyers be punished for 2020 election suits? The jury is still out.

Lauren Stiller Rikleen, executive director of the group Lawyers Defending American Democracy, said the bar associations and disciplinary boards set up in the states historically have handled complaints from clients over money and representation. “For us it’s about maintaining trust in the legal profession,” said Rikleen. “You can’t have trust in the legal system if attorneys can lie in open court without being held accountable.”

May 23, 2023
Bloomberg Law

DeSantis’s War on ‘Woke’ Dooms History to Repeat

Former Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court Peggy A. Quince writes that Gov. Ron DeSantis has hijacked the terms “woke” and “critical race theory” for political purposes, when these terms are meant to train our focus on our nation’s full history, including issues that have plagued people of color.

May 18, 2023
Law360

Texas Attorneys Back Bar's Disciplinary Action Against State AG

The State Bar of Texas' ethics lawsuit against Lone Star State Attorney General Ken Paxton after his attempt to challenge the 2020 presidential election results now has the support of 16 Texas attorneys and the nonpartisan action group Lawyers Defending American Democracy, who filed an amicus brief supporting the State Bar's Commission for Lawyer Discipline.

Apr 13, 2023
Boston Globe

The Supreme Court needs a code of ethics. Here's one to consider.

Using the rules applicable to all other federal judges as a baseline, our organizations’ proposed code includes: clear guidelines for recusal; prohibitions against specific kinds of conduct that create an appearance of impartiality; more rigorous obligations for disclosure; and standards for transparent decision-making.

Mar 24, 2023
Bloomberg Law

Unjust Laws and Court Decisions Overshadow Women’s History Month

Looking back on this Women’s History Month, there still isn’t much opportunity to celebrate. Women around the country face an onslaught of laws and court decisions that reduce or eliminate rights that prior generations fought hard to achieve. If anything, this month should have served as a call to action.

Mar 22, 2023
ABA

ABA Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice: Chair Chat with Lauren Stiller Rikleen

ABA Section Chair Juan R. Thomas and Rikleen Institute for Strategic Leadership President & Founder and Lawyers Defending American Democracy Executive Director Lauren Stiller Rikleen discuss 'Her Honor – Stories of Challenge and Triumph from Women Judges' and Women’s History Month.

Mar 14, 2023
MSNBC

The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell

Using excerpts from LDAD’s ethics complaint as the basis for discussion, Lawrence O’Donnell and his guests, Professor Stephen Gillers and attorney Neal Katyal, engaged in a substantive and thoughtful conversation that clearly explained why the allegations against Mr. Passantino matter to the rule of law. The discussion of LDAD’s ethics complaint begins at 5:53 into the segment.

Mar 13, 2023
New York Sun

Proposed Ethics Code for Supreme Court Escalates Campaign To Bind the Justices

The release of a “Model Code of Conduct for U.S. Supreme Court Justices” by two good-government groups — Project for Government Oversight and Lawyers Defending Democracy — brings into sharp focus the growing effort to regulate the justices, a push that the Nine has thus far resisted.

Mar 13, 2023
Washington Examiner

Clarence and Ginni Thomas could be sidelined under Supreme Court 'model' ethics code

A proposal by outside interest groups for the Supreme Court to adopt a new "model" ethics code could thrust Justice Clarence Thomas and his spouse, Ginni, further into the political limelight. The proposed guidelines from so-called independent government watchdogs Project on Government Oversight and LDAD would put in place "more stringent guidelines for recusal." 
 

Mar 9, 2023
National Public Radio

Outside groups take a first stab at a Supreme Court ethics code

Finally, somebody has taken a try at writing a Supreme Court ethics code, though not the court itself. The justices reportedly have discussed the subject but apparently have not reached any agreement on what, if anything, to do about it.

Now, however, two groups have written what they call a model code of conduct for the Supreme Court. And it's getting generally favorable reviews. The groups are the Project on Government Oversight, a nonpartisan, independent government watchdog, and the Lawyers Defending American Democracy.

Mar 9, 2022
Fix the Court

FTC Endorses Groups' Model Ethics Code for Supreme Court

Fix the Court is endorsing the Model Code of Conduct for U.S. Supreme Court Justices released today by Project On Government Oversight and Lawyers Defending American Democracy that, if adopted, would set reasonable expectations for the justices’ conduct on and off the bench and bring them in line with judges across the country in having a formal document to refer to when faced with tough ethical questions.

Mar 6, 2023
Newsweek

Trump Attorney Could Face Disbarment Over Cassidy Hutchinson Testimony

A group of three dozen attorneys affiliated with the center-left organization Lawyers Defending American Democracy filed a complaint with the Washington, D.C., bar on Monday, accusing Stefan Passantino of pressuring Cassidy Hutchinson to provide false testimony to members of Congress.

Mar 6, 2023
Salon

Ex-Trump ethics lawyer may face disbarment for allegedly trying to influence Hutchinson testimony

Hutchinson, who was a top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, provided damning information during the House committees January 6 probe and revealed that her previous lawyer, Stefan Passantino, had tried to influence her testimony and encouraged her to withhold information from the committee.

Mar 6, 2023
Law360

Fmr. Bar Heads Want Ex-WH Atty Disbarred Over Jan. 6 Probe

A group of past District of Columbia and American Bar Association presidents on Monday joined calls for the disbarment of former Trump White House attorney accused of urging a staffer to lie to Congress.

Mar 6, 2023
ABA Journal

First lawyer who advised Jan. 6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson should face ethics probe, group tells regulators

Hutchinson had testified that Passantino, a former lawyer in the White House counsel’s office, told her to downplay her knowledge of events before the attack and told her that: “The less you remember, the better,” according to prior coverage by Reuters, which obtained a transcript of the testimony.

Mar 6, 2023
New York Times

Group Seeks Disbarment of a Trump-Aligned Lawyer for a Key Jan. 6 Witness

Prominent lawyers filed a scathing ethics complaint against Stefan Passantino, who represented Cassidy Hutchinson in the early stages of the House committee’s investigation.

Nov 8, 2022
Bloomberg Law

Federalist Society’s Influence on Courts Is Bad for Democracy

Peggy Quince and Lauren Stiller Rikleen of Lawyers Defending American Democracy examine the Federalist Society’s influence over state and federal judicial selection. They say originalist judges are problematic for democracy by looking to what the framers would have done.

Oct 12, 2022
New York Times

Lawyers Group Asks Court to Punish an Author of Trump Electors Scheme

An ethics complaint in New York against Kenneth Chesebro is the latest example of legal troubles for lawyers who helped Donald J. Trump try to overturn the 2020 election.

Oct 12, 2022
Reuters

Lawyer group says Trump attorney broke ethics rules in fake elector plan

A group of prominent attorneys on Wednesday asked attorney regulators in New York to investigate lawyer Kenneth Chesebro in connection with former U.S. President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 electoral loss to Joe Biden.

Aug 26, 2022
USA Today

Will Pentagon whistleblower Yevgeny Vindman retire as colonel?

Supporters of Army Col. Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman are urging the White House to allow the Pentagon whistleblower to retire at his current rank when he retires Wednesday, acknowledging unfair treatment which he has received in recent years.

Aug 26, 2022
Military Times

Will Pentagon whistleblower Yevgeny Vindman retire as a colonel?

Both Vindman brothers have become politically polarizing figures since Trump’s first impeachment trial, where the former president was ultimately acquitted of charges that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in 2019 to help with political attacks against Biden in exchange for foreign aid.

Aug 26, 2022
The Hill

Biden faces calls to let Vindman twin retire as colonel

President Biden is facing calls to allow Col. Yevgeny “Eugene” Vindman, who alongside his twin brother Alexander blew the whistle on former President Trump’s July 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, to retire with the title of colonel. 

Aug 23, 2022
Washington Post

Opinion: Liz Cheney is a smart, brave Republican

Gary Ratner, LDAD's co-founder, authors an opinion piece repudiating Republican Florida state Rep. Anthony Sabatini assertion that Liz Cheney is not "smart" for speaking out against former president Donald Trump’s Big Lie.

Aug 23, 2022
Houston Chronicle

Paxton is pushing for dismissal of bar lawsuit

Lawyers for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will argue Wednesday in court that a judge should drop a disciplinary case filed against him by the State Bar of Texas alleging he knowingly lied and attempted to mislead the U.S. Supreme Court in an effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

Aug 9, 2022
National Law Journal

Justice Alito’s Hypocrisy

Religious liberty means that all religions are able to thrive in harmony. It does not mean that a majority of SCOTUS justices who share a religion should be able to demand that other religions subjugate their own beliefs to the majority’s will.

July 22, 2022
CNN

Opinion: Why Steve Bannon's conviction really matters

Even though Bannon's conviction is for contempt, rather than for an underlying crime, the principle remains the same. For more than two centuries, America has been a society bound by the rule of law, not the rule of men -- and we need to keep it that way.

July 20, 2022
The Bulwark

Trump’s Inexcusable Jan. 6th “Dereliction of Duty”

“Dereliction of duty” is a serious accusation, and based on what has already emerged in the committee’s hearings, one that fits. It is beyond question that President Trump was aware in real time of the violence at the Capitol and that he did nothing for hours on end to call off the mob he had helped to summon. So argues, our colleagues Dennis Aftergut and Eugene Fidell.

June 30, 2022
Global News

Controversial rulings spawn questions about U.S. Supreme Court's legitimacy

From its historic rollback of abortion rights to limiting regulations on power plants' carbon dioxide emissions, the U.S. Supreme Court is stirring up controversy and anger. LDAD's Lauren Rikleen weighs in.

June 30, 2022
Bloomberg Law

The Politicization of SCOTUS Threatens Its Legitimacy

Prior to this term, Americans mostly were comfortable with the idea that the US Supreme Court would ensure their constitutional rights were protected against government overreach, say James F. McHugh and Lauren Stiller Rikleen of Lawyers Defending American Democracy. 

May 3, 2022
Bloomberg Law

SCOTUS Draft Rejecting Roe Must Spur Legal Profession to Speak Up

The unprecedented leak of an apparent draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court indicating it is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade should be a wake-up call to the legal profession, says leadership consultant Lauren Stiller Rikleen. Sitting on the sidelines is no longer an option, she writes, as the fundamental right of women to make decisions affecting their own bodies is at risk.

Mar 8, 2022
Houston Chronicle

Texas State Bar Complaint Moves Forward Against AG Ken Paxton 

This Houston Chronicle article provides an update regarding the status of a complaint filed by Lawyers Defending American Democracy and 16 Texas lawyers in July, 2021.

Mar 7, 2022
National Law Journal

Russian Attack on Kyiv Holocaust Memorial Site a Blatant Violation of International Law

It is particularly painful to watch not only war crimes committed by the Russian assault on the Ukrainian people, but the return in the 21st century of an unjustified attack in a region where civilians have endured a history of ethnic cleansing, mass casualties, and genocide.

Mar 2, 2022
National Law Journal

SCOTUS Confirmation Should Focus
on Qualifications

The country deserves a confirmation process for Judge Jackson that is incisive and informative. Americans will have a crucial opportunity to watch the interplay of difficult dynamics that include politics, bias, and entrenched institutions.

Feb 14, 2022
Bloomberg Law

Entrenched Biases Surface for Potential SCOTUS Nominee

Deep-seated biases are evident in commentary questioning whether President Biden’s vow to appoint a Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court conflicts with finding the most qualified jurist for the role, says leadership consultant Lauren Stiller Rikleen.

January 7, 2022
National Law Journal

Democracy Is Backsliding — The Rule of Law in Decline

Data shows that our democracy is “backsliding” and our rule of law is in decline. Yet our nation’s lawyers—the profession most trained to help—largely remain on the sidelines instead of taking a stance.

Dec 17, 2021
The Hill

Legal organization files ethics complaint on Trump lawyer Eastman

A legal organization filed an ethics complaint on Thursday seeking to have a lawyer, John Eastman, investigated for advising former President Trump in efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. 

Dec 17, 2021
Newsweek

1,300 Attorneys Demand Calif. Bar Investigate Trump Lawyer Over Effort to Overturn Election

Eastman wrote a now infamous memo that suggested then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to reject electors from key battleground states that flipped blue for President Joe Biden, resulting in Trump's Electoral College loss.

Dec 17, 2021
Above the Law

Bumbling Trump Coup Lawyer John Eastman Finds Yet Another Bar Complaint In His Stocking

The petitioners claim that Eastman’s effort to subvert the will of the voters amounts to a violation of California Rule of Professional Conduct 8.4(c), which prohibits a lawyer to “engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or reckless or intentional misrepresentation.”

Dec 16, 2021
Bloomberg News

Trump Lawyer Eastman Should Be Sanctioned, 1,200 Attorneys Say

A lawyers’ group has filed the third ethics complaint against Trump lawyer John Eastman with the California bar, alleging misconduct when he colluded with others in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and keep Donald Trump in office for a second term.

Dec 16, 2021
Law.com

1000 Attorneys Ask California Bar to Investigate Trump Ally John Eastman

More than 1,300 signers in nearly all 50 states and the District of Columbia have signed in support of the complaint, which asks the State Bar of California to investigate and, if appropriate, sanction Mr. Eastman for violations of the California Rules of Professional Conduct.

Dec 16, 2021
Law & Crime

Legal Group Files Bar Complaint Against John Eastman for ‘Carefully Orchestrated’ Effort to ‘Overturn the Results’ of the 2020 Election

A legal group filed a bar complaint against conservative attorney John Eastman on Thursday claiming he violated legal ethics rules while serving as an attorney for former President Donald Trump.

Nov 22, 2021
ABA Journal

Lawyers call on members of the profession to defend voting rights

“We’re lawyers. If we’re not speaking up for this issue, who will?” says Lauren Stiller Rikleen of Lawyers Defending American Democracy, a group pushing for more attorneys and firms to take action against the restrictions. 

Oct 18, 2021
Bloomberg Law Opinion

Disciplinary Complaints Await Former Assistant AG Jeffrey Clark

Bloomberg Law has published an op-ed by LDAD steering committee members James McHugh, John Montgomery, and interim Executive Director Lauren Rikleen. The piece considers the fate of former Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark, who is the target of LDAD's most recent ethics complaint.

Oct 17, 2021
The Guardian

Pressure mounts on ex-DoJ official Jeff Clark

Jeffrey Clark, a former top environmental lawyer at the Trump justice department accused of plotting with Trump to undermine the 2020 election results in Georgia and other states, is facing ethics investigations in Washington that could lead to possible disbarment, as well as a watchdog inquiry that might result in a criminal referral.

Oct 5, 2021
The Hill

Group asks DC court to investigate DOJ official who peddled false election claims

A group of legal heavyweights on Tuesday asked the disciplinary panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals to investigate a former Department of Justice (DOJ) official who allegedly sought to use his official position in the federal government to overturn former President Trump’s election defeat.

Oct 5, 2021
Reuters

Attorneys file ethics complaint against ex-Justice official over plot to help Trump

A group of prominent attorneys on Tuesday filed an ethics complaint against Jeffrey Bossert Clark, a former top Justice Department official who is under investigation for allegedly plotting to help former President Donald Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Oct 5, 2021
National Law Journal

Trump DOJ's Civil, Enviro Leader Faces DC Ethics Complaint

The former head of the U.S. Department of Justice's civil and environment divisions during the Trump administration should face serious sanctions for his "extraordinary" and "unethical" conduct during the 2020 presidential election.

Oct 5, 2021
Above the Law

Trumpland Lawyers Face Bar Complaints After Engaging In Some Light Coup-ing

In DC, a group called Lawyers Defending American Democracy demands accountability for Jeffrey Clark, who attempted to persuade his bosses to send a letter to election officials in Georgia — and then the rest of the swing states — urging them to let the legislature override the will of the voters.

Aug 31, 2021
Law 360

Texas Bar Launches New Investigation Of Paxton Election Suit

The State Bar of Texas has agreed to investigate Attorney General Ken Paxton after four former state bar presidents complained that his support of a lawsuit to overturn the 2020 presidential election should prevent him from practicing law in the state.